Artistic License
by Still Not King
Summary: A young artist has dreamed of a man with a magic blue box her entire life, never realizing that they're really memories. The Doctor decides to fix that.


**Author's Notes: **I really hope that the writers bring Romana back eventually; I miss her interactions with the Doctor. Anyway, this is an Eleven/Romana fic.

**Disclaimer: **I do not own _Doctor Who _or its characters.

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><p><strong>I.<strong>

Her dreams were always vivid.

Distant planets and times, aliens both utterly terrifying and utterly wonderful, and a wild looking man with a huge grin and an absurdly long scarf, and his magic blue box, haunted her every time she closed her eyes to sleep for as long as she could remember. When she had been younger she could remember the disappointment she felt upon waking to discover she was in her bed instead of in the blue box with the man with the scarf.

The disappointment faded as she grew, but there were times every now and then when she felt it again and she had to close her eyes and will herself to believe, that even though her dreams felt incredibly real, that they were still just dreams. At those times, she found that holding the broken old fob watch that she had possessed since childhood was immeasurably helpful.

On the bright side those dreams of hers fueled her art; thanks to them she now had a series of graphic novels published about the wild looking man and his adventures in space and time. They were popular enough and she always felt good when her agent gave her letters from fans.

She was content with life and, if she occasionally felt as though her dreams felt much more real to her than anything else in her life, she did her best to ignore it.

**II.**

Signings were always something she enjoyed.

She liked interacting with her fans and seeing the excitement on people's faces over her books was always rewarding.

She had just finished taking a picture with a particularly excited fan when she saw him. The man was tall and lanky and dressed oddly, particularly for his fondness for suspenders and bowties, and, even though he looked around her age, seemed ancient.

He reminded her vividly of the man in her dreams. Which was completely ridiculous considering he looked nothing like him but once the thought had entered her mind it wouldn't go away. Worse, once that notion rooted itself into her mind, next the old passing doubt about the reality of her life resurfaced.

She reached into her pocket and clutched at the watch. These feelings would hopefully pass soon enough.

Soon enough, a little too soon for her liking in fact, he was standing in front of her with a graphic novel waiting to be signed. She felt it hard to take her eyes off him but she managed it long enough to sign his book. She handed it back to him and felt a shock as her hand accidently brushed up against his.

He grinned and left.

She let out a sigh of relief at his departure and did her best to crush the small part of her that felt like running after that strange man.

**III.**

She hadn't thought she was see him again after the signing but there he was sitting at a table in a café she liked to frequent. She had nearly dropped her cup of green tea when he came into sight but she managed to regain her grip at the last moment.

She did her best to ignore him and took a seat by the window.

But her attempt at forgetting his existence ultimately failed when he suddenly appeared at her left shoulder. She jumped in surprise, causing her watch to fall out of her pocket and fall to the floor. Before she could move he bent down and picked it up.

He turned it over in his hands. "I don't think it's damaged." He smiled sheepishly at her. "I didn't meant to scare you."

"It's fine." She put the watch back into her pocket after he gave it back to her. "Don't worry about the watch, it's been broken for years."

He raised an eyebrow.

"Has it? Or did you just never try to open it?"

He winked at her and, before she could form an adequate reply to his strange question, he turned on his heel with a flourish and walked out of the café.

**IV.**

She stared down at the fob watch on her desk.

It was broken, had been broken for as long as she owned it, but she couldn't ease the odd feeling of doubt that had been nagging at her ever since her run-in with that weird man. It was so peculiar; he was a complete stranger to her yet she couldn't shake the odd conviction that he was somehow one and the same with the man in her dreams.

It was all so absurd.

She picked up the old watch and turned it over in her hands so the side with the engraving was facing her. A few moments passed in which her rational side attempted to just get her to put down the watch and forget the whole thing, but despite herself she took a deep breath and attempted to open it.

It opened.

A sudden bright light emanated from the watch and she closed her eyes against the brightness that threatened to engulf her. When the light finally faded, the young artists was no more.

Romanadvoratrelundar stood in her place.

**V.**

The Doctor stood outside her house; she could see him from her bedroom window.

He leaned against the TARDIS, hands in his pocket and a vague smile on his face as he stared at her house; he had a faint air of expectation around him as he waited. An exasperation born out of fondness filled her; that man could be so infuriatingly nonchalant at times that she just had to provoke him at times just to get a reaction.

She rolled her eyes at him, grabbed her leather jacket, and walked out of the house.

His posture straightened as she approached and his smile slowly widened into a grin as she stopped in front of him. Her hearts skipped a few beats at his grin and her knees suddenly felt a bit weak; she mentally scolded herself.

Her reaction to his presence was completely absurd. She must have been human for too long; she hoped these after effects of her self-inflicted humanity would fade the more she adjusted to being herself again.

"It's been awhile, Doctor."

"It has." If his grin got any wider, Romana was sure it would split his face open. "Welcome back to the universe, Romanadvoratrelundar.",

"It's good to be back."

"I don't suppose you'd like to take up traveling with an old friend, would you?"

He seemed so uncertain that she wanted to wrap an arm around him and assure him that she would like nothing more. But that would just not be the Time Lord thing to do; they were not an emotionally open species after all and she was not an exception, even when it came to the Doctor.

So, she merely raised an eyebrow and muttered, "I'd thought you'd never ask."

The uncertainty was gone from his features in an instant and he linked arms with her, blathering on as he walked back into the TARDIS with her. She felt her hearts getting a little erratic again at his touch but she felt a little vindicated when she noted his arm felt a bit stiff and that he kept glancing at her out of the corner of his eye. So, the Doctor was a tad out of sorts around her too.

She scolded herself again about feeling a little too happy about that.

"So any travel suggestions, Romana? I don't think we've been to Space Barcelona before or-"

She cut him off, "Paris is supposed to be quite beautiful at this time of year."

He smiled warmly at her. "Yes, it is."

Her knees felt a bit weak again and she mentally scowled.

She would have to work on not being too human around the Doctor.

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><p><strong>Author's Notes: <strong>Please read and review. Constructive critisim is welcomed.


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